The Telangana government has decided to conduct a comprehensive land survey in the state to address disputes and litigations over maintenance of land records and ownership.The government said it is the first such exercise since 1932-36.

As per the available information, the state government is exploring possibilities of digitising the data by providing a Unique Survey Number to the farmer. The Unique Survey Number should be on the Farmer’s name. Even if there is a land transaction between two farmers, the land will be automatically transferred to the buyer’s unique survey number.

This is the second survey by Chandra Shekhar Rao government after coming to power. The government had done a survey in 2014 to identify the economic situation of people in the state to devise policies for the development of the state.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao

The proposed survey will be done all over the state by 55,000 specially drafted persons exclusively for this purpose, in all the 10,800 plus revenue villages throughout the length.

“The land survey took place during the Nizam’s rule in 1932-36 in the region. After that no survey was done,” said an official release quoting Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

The chief minister, who held a meeting with ministers and officials, said the survey should offer a permanent solution to land disputes.

The maintenance of land records and registration procedures should be simple and transparent, Rao said, according to his office.

“Since the land records are not maintained properly, there are disputes and litigations. There are skirmishes over who owned what land,” Rao had said recently.

The survey would be done in 10,875 villages in the state. Each village will be taken as a unit, according to officials.

The surveying personnel would stay put in the villages for conducting the survey and they will update land records online, they said.

New passbooks would be distributed to land owners after rectifying the records, the officials said.